The University of Washington's Solheim Additive Manufacturing Laboratory has long experimented in radical approaches to 3D printing and now they've shown us another example technique for your 3D printing toolkit: Scaling.

They were approached by the VA Center of Excellence for Limb Loss Prevention and Prosthetic Engineering to assist in the production of a sample human foot to be used in lectures.

The process of creating a foot at first seems obvious, but after discussions with the Limb experts, the job required a larger sample foot that included articulated bones. Two students set to make such a model and succeeded.

But here's the point: 3D printing permits very easy scaling. Objects can be made larger than the "normal" size. Similarly, large objects can be made small. By making objects of a different size, particularly one that can make details "seeable" and "touchable", people can gain more insight when examining them. Buildings can be held in your hand, just as a microbe can.

Kerry Stevenson, aka "General Fabb" has been writing Fabbaloo posts since he launched the venture in 2007, with an intention to promote and grow the incredible technology of 3D printing across the world. So far, it seems to be working!

Fabbaloo is a daily online publication focusing on the 3D print and additive manufacturing industries. We provide deeper analysis of developments in current and future technologies as well as corporate matters. If there’s something happening in 3D technologies, especially FDM, SLA, SLS and Stereolithography, we’ll have an opinion about it.